IT’S ROUND 2 IN THE MAYORAL DEBATE:
Albanese rips mayor on wishy-washy Columbus stand
MAYOR DE BLASIO and his primary challenger, Sal Albanese, traded punches on cops, corruption and Columbus as they squared off in their final primary debate Wednesday night — with the mayor doing plenty of bobbing and weaving.
The faceoff was the second of two debates held before the primary Tuesday — giving Albanese his last, best chance to raise his profile among New Yorkers, while de Blasio sought to promote and defend his record.
Albanese found fodder against his fellow Italian-American in the debate over what to do with the Christopher Columbus statue at Columbus Circle. De Blasio is forming a commission to study monuments across the city, and has declined to give his personal opinion.
“I don’t need a commission to tell me that the Christopher Columbus statue should not come down,” Albanese said.
“It’s very divisive, Bill, and you know it,” he said. “You don’t have the guts to say no.”
De Blasio still would not take a stance, though he said he would not change the name of the Columbus Day Parade or the holiday for public schools. “I understand why so many Italian-Americans feel deeply about this issue,” he added. “They went through discrimination. To this day, Italians are horribly stereotyped.”
Albanese also seized on the cops who turned their backs on de Blasio at slain officers’ funerals, saying the mayor has demoralized the police force — one of many criticisms that de Blasio dismissed as factually “not true.”
The mayor was also pressed to revisit his comments that he had warned his biracial son, Dante, to be careful in interactions with police, which angered many officers.
“I want to see that conversation change for hundreds of thousands of parents,” he said, adding, “I look forward to the day” when such warnings would not be necessary.
His son, he said, “is an adult now, and he makes his own decisions,” but he’d still urge him to closely follow all instructions if stopped by police.
De Blasio, who has largely focused on his record, came into the debate hoping to also highlight the need for a mayor who would talk tough against President Trump. He used a question to Albanese to ask how he’d deal with the President, saying Trump “only understands strength.”
Albanese said he finds Trump’s policies “abhorrent” and would stand up to him “aggressively,” but wouldn’t get into a “personal grudge match.”
Albanese went with a tougher attack for his question to the mayor, saying de Blasio had lied when he promised to produce a list of donors who were denied favors by his administration. The mayor published an Op-Ed last Friday, offering few specifics.
“Why did you lie to me?” Albanese said.
De Blasio again dodged, calling Albanese’s statements “factually untrue.”
“I gave prominent examples and clearly well-known public examples where people asked and didn’t get what they wanted, no matter how rich and powerful they were,” he said.
The two pols differed sharply on several issues, including congestion pricing and the legalization of marijuana.
I’ve never supported congestion pricing. I think it’s a regressive tax. Mayor de Blasio